Guilty
by IheartJack0023
Summary: What would have happened if someone would have taken the blame for the Uchiha massacre? And what if she was Itachi's ex-lover? ItachixOC One-shot songfic with "Guilty" by Since October


**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Naruto" or anything associated with it. Or the song "Guilty" by Since October and its lyrics. I only own "Muzaiko" and "Yukita."

* * *

A young woman laughed as a small boy jumped onto her back, tackling her to the ground.

"Do I win?" he asked as he began to tickle her.

"Okay! Okay! I give! I give!" he stopped tickling her and got off of her as soon as she said those words. Proud of his victory he strutted back towards an older figure leaning against a tree.

"You were there the entire time and you couldn't even bother to help, Itachi?" asked the woman to the older figure.

"You seemed to have everything handled, Muzaiko," he replied to her. She pouted at him and grabbed the younger boy's hand. "Come on Sasuke, let's go. You're brother's a meanie."

Sasuke's eyes widened, "No! Nii-san isn't a meanie!"

"He's got a point there, y'know," said a deep voice against Muzaiko's ear. She shuddered involuntarily and lifted her head upward to meet a pair of dark eyes. Muzaiko smiled sweetly and turned around to face Itachi.

"He does," is all she says as she hugs him tightly and buries her face into his chest. He smiles lightly, but then the smile falters a little and a hint of regret becomes visible in his eyes.

* * *

Muzaiko walked with the two Uchihas to the Uchiha compound. Getting ready to go her own way home, she said goodnight to the Uchiha family, but Itachi stopped her before she could walk any further.

"Muzaiko, you know I always walk you home," Itachi said warningly.

"But it's more work for you. I mean, you're already home! And I can take care of myself, I'm a good kunoichi!"

"I'm not saying you aren't."

Muzaiko sighed. Itachi was stubborn and she knew it so she gave in to his request and let him walk her home.

It only took about ten minutes before they had arrived at the front of her home.

"I guess this is goodnight, then!" chirped Muzaiko, but Itachi did not respond. She looked over to him to see him staring at her intently. She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Itachi-koi?" she asked. Within a second, Itachi had his lips on the ones of a very surprised Muzaiko. Just as she was beginning to lean into the kiss, however, he pulled away from her.

"Itachi-koi?" asked Muzaiko. "Is something wrong? That was odd, even for you. You usually don't just do something like that so-" she was cut off.

"I'm sorry, Muzaiko, but we cannot see each other anymore."

Those words, to Muzaiko, felt like a kunai was being driven straight through her heart. She had always told Itachi that she loved him and he had always told her the same. So why this all of a sudden?

Itachi left immediately after that and left Muzaiko to just stand there with tears streaming down her face and pain ripping apart her heart. Between sobs she was able to muffle out one last,

"Itachi-koi."

_Good luck means nothing to me.  
So exactly what does that mean for me now?  
Have I given up on almost everything?

* * *

_

The day after _that _horrible day, Muzaiko went to see her friend Yukita. She explained everything about the previous night's events to her friend.

"And now I'm just confused," Muzaiko said in a melancholic manner, "I don't know what to do, Yukiko!"

"The answer is simple," she said like a wise women, "you just have to find out WHY you guys can't see each other anymore. At least why he said you can't." Muzaiko only nodded in response.

* * *

Against her better judgment, Muzaiko found herself walking toward the Uchiha compound. The streets were empty, as usual by this time, seeing as it was quite late at night. She could feel that there was something different in the air, however—a foreboding feeling.

By the time Muzaiko got to Itachi's house, a feeling of apprehension had developed at the pit of her stomach but she went against her better judgment again, and decided to ignore it.

Muzaiko knocked on the door, but received no answer, so she decided to let herself in after discovering that the door was unlocked. She wandered the halls in search for the older Uchiha, or anyone for that matter, but immediately stopped when her ears picked up on sobbing. She followed the sound and immediately froze at the sight she witnessed: Sasuke was perched over his parents' corpses crying his eyes out.

_Haunting reminders indeed..._

Muzaiko gasped in shock. She wondered who on earth could do this to such good people. Then it hit her that Sasuke must be in immense pain and she rushed to his side to comfort him.

"Sasuke, what happened?" she asked in a soothing tone that came out a bit shaky as she embraced him.

"Onee-chan," he managed to shudder out, "I-I-I-" was all he could say before bursting into more tears. Muzaiko pulled him closer to her in a protective manner and let her shirt soak up his tears as she observed the bodies. They were lying in a pool of their own blood as more of that blood oozed out of their mouths and added to the pool. The skin that wasn't covered in blood was dreadfully pale. Their eyes were wide open from shock, it seemed, from the attack. It was almost too much to bear.

_And they still bleed._

She felt tears attempting to leave her eyes, but she knew that she had to stay strong for Sasuke—he needed her support more than she did his at the moment—so she blinked back the tears.

_For the first time, I'm down on my knees._

After a few minutes of wallowing in her own thoughts and listening to nothing other than Sasuke's cries, Muzaiko heard someone enter the house. She turned around and saw none other than Itachi dressed in his anbu clothing.

"Itachi," she began timidly, "thank goodness you're here. I was coming to talk to you a-and I found y-your parents d-dead. I think Sasuke may know what happened so he can tell us once he calms down." The entire time she talked, Muzaiko noticed that Itachi's face remained expressionless. She found that extremely strange. She knew that anbu weren't supposed to show their emotions, but, she contemplated, his parents had just been killed. She couldn't understand why, throughout all of this, he just stood there acting as if he didn't care.

Acting. Was he really acting? Maybe it wasn't an act. Maybe, just maybe...

"Itachi, don't tell me it was you. Please don't tell me it was you who did this,"she plead almost choking on her own words, but Itachi remained silent. When he didn't answer, Muzaiko's thoughts began to run wild.

"Maybe," she thought, "he was in too much shock from his parents' death to answer. Maybe that's why he couldn't react to anything. Maybe he was just in too much shock. Or maybe he's trying to deny everything. Maybe he's standing there right in front of me trying to deny that this is happening. Trying to deny that his parents were killed. That had to be it because Itachi would never do something like that. Silly me! How could I have ever even doubted Itachi. He would never do this. He couldn't..."

Muzaiko's eyes widened as Sasuke, who's head had turned to face his brother, had stopped crying and had slumped into an unconscious heap in her arms. Itachi left the house right after.

Muzaiko gently placed Sasuke onto the floor and ran after Itachi. She wanted answers and she resolved that she wasn't going to stop until she got them.

"Itachi!" she yelled from the street across the one he was on, but he continued to walk quickly away from her so she ran toward him until she was finally able to catch up to him. Muzaiko looked him in the eyes hoping that he would just explain everything to her, but she had no such luck. All he did was stare back at her, blankly and emotionlessly.

_You're asking nothing of me.  
Just say good bye and I'm free.  
It's so easy, I don't understand,  
But I want it more than anything._

Itachi, after a moment of the pair standing in silence, stepped closer to her. She could now feel his breath on her lips. His stare flickered with sadness and regret at that moment, and seeing that he was showing some emotion, Muzaiko's hard glare changed into a soft stare. Itachi closed the gap between them in a chaste kiss, and Muzaiko's eyes closed to savor the moment.

"I love you, but this is something that I must do. Goodbye," he murmured with his lips still pressed against Muzaiko's and Muzaiko's eyes still closed. She opened her eyes when she felt the pressure of his lips on hers disappear and she noticed that he was gone.

"I love you too," she whispered to the wind as she fell to her knees to try and take in everything that had occurred: the dead Uchihas, the unconscious Sasuke, Itachi's confession. It was so much for her to bear at the moment that she failed to realize the Konoha ninja rushing towards her. She finally noticed them when one of them touched her shoulder.

She shifted her head upwards, and looked at them, at first emotionlessly and then in fear once she realized that her being covered in the Uchihas' blood (from Itachi's parents) would not look good on her behalf.

"So it was you that killed everyone," the ninja said in a deep voice.

"N-n-n-no," Muzaiko shuddered out, but the ninja refused to believe her. He bound her like he would a prisoner and locked her up in a cell.

She cried herself to sleep that night.

* * *

When Muzaiko woke up, she had found out that all of Konoha knew what she had supposedly done.

A while later, the same ninja from the previous night had decided to come and take her out of her cell.

"Where are you taking me?" Muzaiko asked confused.

"You have been sentenced to death for what you have done," he spat at her, his voice laced with venom

"What? I get no trial?" she exclaimed.

"We all saw what you did. There's no need for a trial."

"But I didn't do anything!" she growled at the ninja.

"Woah, careful there," said another ninja appearing behind her. "We need to keep her calm. After all, we don't want a repeat of last night, do we?" Muzaiko bit back another growl that would have been directed towards this other ninja. That obviously wasn't helping her case.

The ninja led Muzaiko to a wooden platform. It wasn't very sturdy and made creaking noises with every step that she took. On the far end of the platform, she eyed a guillotine with fear. She could see the blade shine as it reflected the sun's light.

Below her, on ground level, stood Konoha's citizens. Every one of them cheered a variety of phrases,

"Kill the killer!"

"Death to the murderer!"

"Behead the bitch!"

It wasn't, however, until Muzaiko saw her (ex) best friend, Yukita, with her parents cheering for Muzaiko's death as well, that she broke down into tears. She didn't blame her, though. Yukita's parents never did like her.

Muzaiko directed her stare toward the statues of the hokages for the last time in her life, and that was when she noticed something unusual about the third hokage's face: there was someone on his nose. She squinted her eyes to get a better look and realized that the figure was none other than Itachi himself.

She looked at him. She didn't glare at him. She just looked at him. Even as she was pushed to her knees to kneel in front of the guillotine, she never looked away from him.

Itachi looked down at her.

Muzaiko knew that he wanted to do something to save her or at least, she hoped he did, but she could tell that there was nothing he could do for her.

As her head was shoved roughly under the guillotine's blade, she continued to stare at Itachi.

_Can't seem to begin to release  
This guilty conscience for peace._

As her head was shoved against the guillotine, she continued to stare at Itachi.

_It's so hard 'till I'm back here.  
I'm back on my knees._

As the blade was positioned above her and readied, she continued to stare at Itachi.

_Begging, pleading now.  
Intercede please,  
Show me how._

_If I was innocent,_

_Would you take the blame for me?_

A tear made it's way down Itachi's cheek as he saw men tugging the rope that held the blade above Muzaiko's head in place.

_Guilt has got the best of me.  
I'm holding on to almost nothing._

Muzaiko's eyes met with Itachi's for one final time. He saw the tears brimming in her eyes. They were threatening to spill over at any moment, but they didn't. She held them back.

_Wondering if innocence  
Could ever lead to my forgiveness._

They let go of the rope and the blade swung down. Various tears were now streaming down Itachi's face, but Muzaiko's eyes never broke away from his.

Not as she felt the sharp blade hit her neck, not as she drifted into the darkness, not as her head rolled onto the basket placed below the guillotine. Never.

_If I was innocent,_

_Would you take the blame for me?_

After seeing Muzaiko be killed for him, Itachi spoke in anger to the hokage statues,

"I may be loyal to you now, but it won't always be that way. You made me kill my own parents and the rest of my clan. You made me watch the one I love be killed because she was falsely accused for something that _I_ did. You wouldn't allow me to save her, even though I could have," Itachi growled. "Heed my warning Konohagakure: I will protect the ones I have left. Sasuke, I will protect you."


End file.
